Meg Hourihan (megnut.com) is talking now. ABout weblogs and later about the Lafayette project, which is looking for a new name.
The anatomy of a weblog, with timestamps, links, etc., is what uniquely defines a weblog. But blogging is also about distributed discussions, where weblog posts float around the web, people connect to each other, share ideas, and so on. Basically, weblogs are what the web should have been from the beginning. It just took us longer to get there than we expected.
What are we doing with blogs? Two sides of the weblog equation: Reading blogs and writing blogs. A lot of development is going on on the publishing side (Meg is a co-founder of Blogger.com). Plug for Typepad (I’m waiting for that too!)
The reading side is the new challenge. Social software. RSS readers. Good enough for smaller scale social networks, but what happens when things grow? Trackback (Reboot bloggers, see here)
The Lafayette project is about helping people reading weblogs. A social networking tool. RSS reading, blog recommendations, several languages. Opens this summer. Cool.
No weblog backlash ahead, Meg thinks. On thhe contrary, actually. Lot’s of interesting stuff to come. A whole new way for people to read and write content.